Tom Brady gets Offensive Player of the Year

The Associated Press awarded New England Patriots QB Tom Brady the Offensive Player of the Year Award for 2010.

Brady won the honor Tuesday for the second time in four seasons. The record-setting quarterback, who had a string of 355 passes without being intercepted, received 21 votes from a nationwide panel of 50 media members who regularly cover the league. He easily beat Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick, who got 11 votes.

“To me it comes down to the mental toughness and determination of the players and coaches,” Brady said.

A unanimous choice for the All-Pro team, Brady threw for 36 touchdowns while being picked off just four times. When he won the award in 2007, Brady set an NFL mark with 50 touchdowns passes as New England went undefeated in the regular season.

Oddly, the Patriots did not win the championship in either of those seasons, but have won it three other times.

Brady doesn’t sense much difference in the guy who took New England to a 16-0 mark back then and a league-best 14-2 this season.

“I feel our team really grew together over the course of the season. It was a privilege to be a part of this team,”he said. “My only disappointment is that we couldn’t take advantage of our opportunity in the playoffs, but hopefully we learn from that and use it as motivation toward accomplishing our goals for next season.”

What Brady is doing isn’t much different: He’s winning, and he’s piling up dominant stats.

Brady led the NFL with a 111 passer rating. His 65.9 completion percentage was second to Philip Rivers of San Diego — by 0.1 percent. Nobody came close to his touchdown-to-interception differential: nearest was Matt Cassel at plus-20.

Tom Brady had 36 passing TDs and four INTs this season. That’s the highest ratio (9.0) in NFL history — surpassing his own record from 2007.